Time Flies!

It’s hard to believe that we’re already halfway through our time here in San Cristobal.  This has been an absolutely fantastic experience, and I’m so grateful that I was able to come and attend language school here.  Thanks again to everyone for praying, supporting, and encouraging me in this endeavor.

We continue to learn a lot in school – reflexive verbs, imperfect past tense, and direct/indirect/reflexive pronouns are some of what we’ve been covering.  It’s been hilarious watching our English deteriorate as we try to gain an understanding of Spanish!   Sometimes we don’t even understand each other!  Learning so many different tenses has helped expand my conversational abilities a lot, and I’m making definite, though slow, progress.  Sometime this week we’re going to have Nathan teach us how to share the gospel in Spanish, something I’m really looking forward to.

My teacher isn’t yet open to the gospel, but the teacher for the other class, Eduardo, is very open.  Today before leaving for school we prayed as a group for opportunities to share the gospel with our teachers, and the other class was able to talk for about half an hour with Eduardo about the gospel, with him initiating the conversation and asking questions.  Yasmina still isn’t open to spiritual things, and in fact today we learned that her dad is a political science teacher at a high school in Cuba.  Please keep praying for both of them, and for our testimony to them as well.

Our days are overflowing with school, homework, translating, filming, and just keeping up with meals and the apartment.  Everything in Mexico takes longer than expected!  Last week we all got some sort of stomach bug (still trying to decide what it was), so that knocked us down for a couple of days.  Several people still have some lingering/recurring effects from the bug, but hopefully we can get it taken care of soon.  Please keep praying for our health!

Today we went to the home of a couple from church who invited us for lunch and to practice our Spanish/their English.  It was such a neat time conversing with them, and seeing their love for the Lord and others.  I really like the times when we can just sit down and converse in Spanish with people, and get some practical use out of our bookwork.  Only so many verbs you can conjugate and stay sane, ya know!

I absolutely love it here, and I’m excited to see what next step the Lord has for me!  I already have so many wonderful memories from this trip, and it’s being reinforced every day that missions is where God wants me.  Please pray for me that I can know His will in that next step.

Filming the “My, my, mine” skit

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Our school

Spanish, Rappelling, and Walking on Water

Wow, what an awesome time it has been!  School has been going really well, and I’m learning so much.  This week my class covered present tense, two kinds of future tense, and past tense of regular and irregular verbs.  We also covered prepositions, synonyms & antonyms, and a bunch of vocab.  Whew!  You know, someday I think I’ll invent a language without irregular verbs, masculine and feminine words, and “por” & “para”.

After spending a week cramming our brains with Spanish, Saturday was a wonderful day off!  Nathan pulled out his rappelling gear, and we all headed a short way out of San Cristobal to a beautiful spot in the mountains with an awesome rock bridge from which we could rappel.

After a short lesson on how the whole process works, we headed down one by one.  Steven was the first to go, taking the 80-foot drop like a pro.  Then Adrian, Ruth, Elizabeth, and Daniel went next.  Finally, it was my turn.  Having never rappelled before, and being rather afraid of heights, I was determined to conquer my fear and take the challenge.  Nathan gave me a short pep talk as I made my start, and slowly but surely I made my way off the edge until finally I was just swinging in the air… way, way, way higher than I have ever been before!  It was both exhilarating and terrifying all at once.

Upon a successful arrival at the bottom, I decided to try something else new – walking on water!  Still a bit dizzy and hyperventilating from my exciting experience, I headed back across the stream to climb back to the top.  Unfortunately, I completely missed seeing the rock path across the stream, and saw what I thought was a sandbar instead.  Much to my surprise, my “sandbar” turned out to be just a bunch of gunk floating on top of the river.  And, just in case you’re wondering, even though I can now rappel, I still can’t walk on water!   (And talk about cold…)

After a tasty picnic lunch, it began to rain, so we all headed home to play games, bake cookies, and fellowship for the rest of the day (and get one of us a hot shower! ).  Wow, talk about one awesome day!

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be here! Even though the study is hard, and sometimes frustrating, I know it will have a huge impact on my long-term ministry. The translation of the GE curriculum is coming along slowly, but we’re all excited about the long-term effectiveness of the project.  This week we’ll start videotaping the skits so that we can have a complete curriculum package for use by churches and individuals that we may never get to travel to.

Keep praying for me and the team!  We really need “velcro brains” as we head into this next week!

The last step before the great hang… for an idea of height, look for Steven standing at the bottom

Hola from Mexico!

Hola from Mexico!  Things are going really well here, and I’m already learning so much even with just three days of school!  We’ve already covered three verb tenses, synonyms & antonyms, prepositions, and a bunch of miscellaneous other stuff.  Whew!

My trip here went well and my suitcase arrived with me which was a really good thing. Two of our girls still don’t have their luggage though, so that’s been an inconvenience.  Hopefully it’ll get straightened out soon.

The teacher for my group is really nice and very helpful, but definitely not a Christian.  In fact, she’s actually communist minded.   Pray for our testimony to Yasmina.

Well, I need to get back to my translation project for the the Global Encounters curriculum that I’m assigned to, so I better get going…

Counting Down…

Wow, less than a week until Mexico!  I’m so excited!

I’d appreciate prayer this week as I get all the packing together, purchase those last trip supplies, and try to wrap up all my projects here in anticipation of leaving.  I’m overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that needs to be done, but I know the Lord will be faithful to help me through.  Thanks!

If you haven’t already done so, the entire language team can be met here.

Quotable

The fastest way to become a millionaire is to start off a billionaire and then buy an airline.”

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

December is one of my favorite times of the year! The gentle snowfalls, Christmas gift-giving, gathering with friends and family… it’s just so perfect!

But its days like today that are the cherry on top of the sundae. With a severe winter storm due any time, I’ve gotten two calls from co-workers letting me know they’re closing the office today and to not come in. So… what to do?

I love days at home when it’s snowing outside and you can stay cozy inside. To start with, I’ve already exercised (trying in vain to make up for those Christmas cookies yesterday), and now I’m checking up on people’s blogs (some of which need desperately to be updated ). (I also mailed my quarterly income tax payment this morning, but I’m trying to forget that. ) Later I’ll make a cup of hot chocolate in my favorite Life is Good mug, to sip while I either read a great book or watch a great movie. Since I went through five books over Thanksgiving break, I’ll probably go for the movie, but I really don’t know yet. There might be some FreeCell added to the afternoon activities, or I might opt to bake my favorite Pumpkin Spice Muffins.

Regardless of what I do, everything must be done slowly. I mean, that’s almost the whole point of the day anyway! No rushing around, just a slow enjoyment of whatever fancies you at the moment.

So, let it snow! I’m ready!

Mexico 2010!

News flash – I’m headed to Mexico in 2010! Yay!

As with my other trips, I’ll be traveling with Global Encounters. But this time we’ll be doing something completely new – attending Spanish language school! Even though I took two years of Spanish class in high school, I still lack the skills to communicate well in a more than surface-level conversation.  I have a good foundation, but since I’ve lacked opportunity to really immerse myself in intensive study, I just haven’t crossed that line into effective, fluent communication.

So, that’s why I and six others have decided to attend language school in San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico.  We’ll be there for four weeks learning Spanish and doing ministry projects on the side that will allow us opportunity to use our new training on a daily basis.  Though I don’t expect to come home perfectly fluent, my goal is to become a competent Spanish speaker, able to converse on a personal level with those I encounter, and to accurately share the Gospel and answer related questions.  Attending language school is that next big step towards going full-time on the mission field, something I’ve known God was calling me to since my early teens.

The trip dates are January 23 – February 23, 2010. Some specific prayer requests include:

• Efficient preparations for departure
• Profitable pre-trip studying
• Finances
• A productive time in language school
• Safety in traveling and living in Chiapas for a month
• That God would be glorified through myself and the team

The entire language school team can be met here. Many of you will probably recognize several of the faces, as I’ve had opportunity to travel with all but one of the team members on at least one or more past trips, and we’ve gotten to be good friends. I’m so excited to be a part of this team!

Wow… I still can’t believe it’s happening…! Every time I think of the trip, I get so excited I get the all-over jitters!